• P.O.BOX 3962, Kla, Plot 373. Ssentamu close, Najjera
  • +256 3225937 | +256 782 226311
  • info@sagetraltd.com

Tag Archives: Agriculture business news

Growing Beans

Beans are annual plants grown for their edible seeds and occasionally for the leaves that are eaten as vegetables. They are one of the most important legumes for human consumption. They are estimated to be the second most important source of dietary protein and third most important source of calories. There are many varieties of beans but in Uganda, the common ones include Nambale, K131, K132, NABE 2, NABE 3 and NABE 4. These are bush beans while the climbing types include NABE (7C, 8C, 9C, 10C) and NABE12.
Traditionally, beans were grown for home consumption but after realising the benefits, bean growing transcended to being commercial. Below are some reasons why you should be grow beans.

Ready Market
Beans have an already market in homes, schools, barracks, hospitals. Besides the local market, the regional market for beans continues to grow everyday. Peace Akatukwasa, a crop pathologist says a target farmer should invest in bean growing because of the growing demand.
“There is growing market for beans across borders in Rwanda, South Sudan, and DR Congo. So, a farmer who is investing in growing beans is better placed,” says Akatukwasa.
In 2014, this paper reported that revenue collected from beans exported to DRC according to market information from Uganda Exports Promotions Board earned the country $1.15(Shs3b) out of the total $ 1.42(Shs3.7b exports.

Grow fast
Unlike most of the crops, beans mature in two to three months. This means that you can accrue the proceeds quickly.

Fixes Nitrogen in soil
Beans are leguminous plants and they fix nitrogen into the soil so besides the other values, beans can help on improving soil fertility.

Not susceptible to diseases
Unlike most crops beans are not easily affected by diseases. “With beans, you can be assured of growing for years without a worry of diseases. But this does not mean you don’t keep watch and monitor any possible disease outbreak and pest attacks,” advises Joy Mugisha, the Quality Control manager Kiziba Community seed bank.

Nutrition value
Beans are the least expensive source of proteins and also an easy source of vitamins A, C, KB6 and folic acid. Beans are also a source of minerals such as phosphorous, potassium and zinc, and are high in soluble fiber.
Easy to preserve
Robert Muzira, a research officer at National Research Organisation(NARO) says they are proven affordable indigenous bean preservation methods which include use of wooden ash, cow dung and crushed burnt brick ash.
Quick tips on growing beans
• Dig holes of two to five centimetres deep in rows.
• Sow preferably on onset of rains.
• Put two to three seeds in each hole.
• Thinly cover with a layer of soil.
• Irrigate if you sow before rains
• Monitor weed and insect pests
• Weed between two to three weeks of planting.
• You may apply multi-purpose fertilizer such as NPK.
• Harvest between six to seven

Growing Pumpkins in Uganda

Pumpkins are a warm season vegetables belonging to the genus “Cucurbita”. The gourd fruit grows on vines and is mainly grown for its culinary elements

Common varieties of Pumpkins grown in Uganda
There are over 7 varieties of pumpkin grown in Uganda, they include sweet cream,Bala,Dulu,Onziga,Sunfish,Sugar pie, and Anderina.
Soil requirements for growing Pumpkins
Pumpkins do well in loamy soils with a good drainage and a high humus percentage. The soils should not be water logged as the plant can easily rot off.
How to Propagate Pumpkins on your Farm

Grow your pumpkins from seeds. They should take about 5 days from sowing to emerge.It’s best to plant your pumpkins on moulds, though even a flat surface can work. Plant seeds 1 inch deep at a rate of 4 to 5 seeds per hill and 5 to 6 ft between hills. When seedlings are well established thine each hill to leave at most 2 plants per hill. Go ahead to space 4ft between hills and 8 ft between rows. Prune vines early in the season to discourage random growth and out of control patch. Keep pumpkin plants free of weeds by hoeing and shallow cultivation. Irrigate your plantings if there happens to be extended dry periods. Watch out for powdery mildew which causes a dusty white mould on the plant, cucumber beetles as these mainly attack seedlings and the vines at their tender age.

How Best to Harvest Pumpkins in Africa

It takes about 100 to 120 days for a given pumpkin variety to reach maturity. Pumpkins are hand harvested at their mature stage. Multiple harvests are so common because individual fruits are pollinated at different time’s. Harvest your pumpkin fruits whenever you see their deep solid color i.e. most color vary between orange and green, and when the rind is also hard.

About the Pumpkin Market in Uganda
Demand for pumpkin is constant, and a farmer can market their grown pumpkins in national markets lie Nakasero, Owino, road side stalls, and even at the supermarket vegetable shelves, hotels and restaurants.

Quick Tips for growing Pumpkins in Uganda

Open up the land you are going to use for planting. Clear up the land and heap up soils to make ridges. At a spacing of 4ft between hills and 8 ft set up hills in arrow. On the crest on the ridge open up a hole 1 inch deep, then sow seeds at a rate of 4 to 5 seeds. Cover the seeds gently with soil and lightly water. After about 10 days the seeds will have established so go ahead to prune. Weed your pumpkins to prevent competition for growth nutrients. Often you should spray the pumpkins with pesticides and fungicides to keep off pests and diseases.

Free Irrigation Equipments

NAADS top manager Grace Kazigati (also handles communications) says FAO has partnered with NAADS to organize an awards exercise aimed at recognizing the most outstanding youth entrepreneurs in agriculture. Over 500 of them will compete in a months’ long exercise that will see the different farming enterprises assessed and evaluated to determine the most inspiring ones that are worthy sharing with the rest of the country.

In the first three weeks of September there will be training and registration of the participants from all over the country whereby the best 500 will be designated to compete for the trophy. In the end, the 25 best youth-led farming enterprises will be selected ahead of the overall winner coronation ceremony slated for 5th and 6th October, effectively coinciding with the Independence week.

The 25 youth champions will win prizes and become entitled to more support from NAADS including in areas like irrigation, an item on which NAADS has allocated some good resources at the prompting of the President who has lately been on countrywide tours popularizing basic irrigation skills. National youth leader David Kabanda, who accompanied the President for the Bundibugyo event, says that whereas there are some districts that are yet to benefit from the heifer project, Mugasi (the NAADS ED) deserves parting in the back for his pro-youth initiatives.

“He is flexible and enthusiastically responds whenever there is any presidential directive regarding the youth and we are proud of him as young NRM cadres. The ongoing preparations to choose youth champions for agriculture is a great idea and unprecedented and it’s something we support as youth leaders and in my case I’m already mobilizing my youths in Sembabule to actively participate and who knows, we may even produce the overall winner because we have done a lot in farming,” said outspoken David Kabanda who has previously had Sembabule youth groups benefit from NAADS programs.

Kazigati explained that the competition to determine the 25 youth champions will cover both individual and groups-based youth farmers across Uganda.

Source: The AgricBusiness News

Maize, Millet

Zubair Kawooya a resident of Bukolooto village, Kayunga Town, in Kayunga District was a poor man three years ago.
He was previously a maize farmer and it is from selling dry maize grain that he derived his livelihood. “I used to earn about Shs450,000 from my maize every season because I was being cheated by middlemen,” Kawooya, 43 years old recounts.

Numa processing plant

However, in 2014, Kawooya together with other farmers went for an education tour in Western Uganda. During the tour, they visited Numa feeds in Bushenyi District. Numa Feeds Limited is a medium, rural-based agribusiness that adds value to rice, maize, soybean and millet by processing them into flour. At Numa they were taken through the processes of making and mixing the flour and when Kawooya returned home, he tried to put into practice what he had learnt and seen. Using the little savings he had made of Shs800,000 he bought the equipment and raw materials to use. For the start he bought 50 kilogrammes each of maize, millet, rice and soybean. He also bought a second hand weighing scale at Shs70,000, a polythene bag roll at Shs50,000 and Shs45,000 for branded labels.

He then turned two rooms of his residential house into a workplace. He made four types of produce namely, soya millet flour which he makes by mixing soya and millet flour, rice flour, soya rice flour (mixture of rice and soya flour) soya flour which is also mixed with some maize flour. All products are mixed with maize flour except rice flour.

Adding value
Kawooya says he first sorts the grains to remove the stones and chaff. He then roasts them on a charcoal stove. He then mixes the components in different proportions, depending on their nutritional value.
He buys the grains from produce stores in Jinja and Mbale. For instance, when he is going to make soy millet flour, he mixes them in a proportion of 40 kilogrammes for soybean, 30 kilogrammes for both millet and maize flour to make 100 kilogrammes. “For all the produce, the ratio of soybean is higher than that of other components like maize or rice flour because soybean flour has a high nutritional value,” Kawooya says. After doing the mixing, he takes them to a mill where he is charged Shs300 per kilogramme. After the milling, he packages the produce in polythene bags of a half and one kilogramme. Then, he takes the products to the market using a motor-cycle and sometimes in a taxi.

Market

After fortifying the products into standards, Kawooya is able to tap into bigger markets. He mainly sells his products to supermarkets in Kampala, Jinja, Mukono, Kayunga and in eastern region mainly Busoga. In most cases he is always paid cash on delivery but in case there is no money he supplies the products on credit and gets the money after one week. He also sells to individuals who get them from his home. Kawooya’s biggest challenges lies in the ever increasing prices of the raw materials (grains). This he says makes planning very hard as he is not sure of how much he is going to buy or sell his products. Although he grows some of the raw materials, he cannot have them all the time so he resorts to buying from other farmers and traders.Also, he says he has limited market for his products as some super markets refuse to buy them since they are not yet certified by Uganda bureau of standards.Kawooya says he also lacks transport means for taking his products to the market faster and in a safe way.

Source: Daily Monitor Uganda